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However, the huge head-scratcher is the Dolphins-Saints game. That, of course, took place overseas in London and aired at 6:30 A.M. More people woke up at 6:30 A.M. on a Sunday to watch two southeast teams play in London instead of watching their hometown Los Angeles Chargers.

That raises doubts on whether or not the Chargers can even make it to the new stadium in 2020. The Bolts don’t even seem to be relevant in LA, and quite frankly, there is likely more Raiders fans in the city than Chargers fans.

Talks of the team moving back to San Diego have already flared up, but they were quickly shot down by the NFL. While four weeks may be too small of a sample size for the NFL to even consider moving the Chargers back, if this trend continues, they may be forced to.

Like it or not, the NFL is a business. Churning money is the league’s main goal and the costs far outweigh the rewards of the team playing in a soccer stadium; that they cannot fill up.

I get that moving back to San Diego is not an option as there is no real solution for the stadium. And the Murph is not really the long term solution (though it might have been nice if Dean had spiffed up the lockers and scoreboard - especially after the Padres left - they could have made those lockers and offices better).

But, nobody can convince me that the NFL, Roger, owners has not noticed and that people have probably talked about:
--was moving a mistake
--this is worse than we thought
--what if we moved back to San Diego - is that even an option

I believe those conversations, even if at the end of the day, drinking a beer - these things are being discussed league wide. Its embarrassing

If that turns out to be what the NFL truly is becoming, well I'm sure glad SD told Spanos to go EFF himself, and the league too. Kind of a depressing look at things. If the NFL is getting so big in certain markets that they only care about corporate and multimedia and brokerage sales, and could give a rat's *** about the common fan who wants to attend a game, well eff em.

It is sort of akin to the development of player free agency......back before that players were identified by city/team for their entire career unless traded. That was a big deal for fans, and also for players who came to love the cities they played for and the fans who identified with them. That got lost and then players were more about $ and how and where they could make the most of that and the cities and fans of those cities became secondary and almost an afterthought.

This is similar only much more sinister and worse. Like the last sentence said, this little LA experiment of the Chargers is about the 'soul of sports'. Hope it fails and if other fans in America are watching and understand what is at stake, I would think they all too should hope it fails. This could end up becoming a huge story nationally and with Spanos the face of evil and greed in sports owners. If Hollywood had to cast a villainous owner Dean Spanos would be a perfect guy to play the part.

Except that you can't (permanently) divide spectators from an entertainment product. They are the ultimate source of demand for the supply of product that's generated, and at the end of the day, the Chargers (and the NFL) need that demand to exist.

The method of delivery can vary. We used to watch movies at the movie theater, now we have home theaters, but the demand for watching movies is the persisting factor that supports both business models.

The problem facing the Chargers right now is that they have killed off their demand. They may be able to obfuscate that for a bit by selling PSLs to people banking on that demand to develop. But what happens if it doesn't develop? What happens if they can't build a fan base?

Existential crisis. That's what.

Finally back in San Diego County after stints in Canada, Vermont, and in the OC.

I've brought myself home, Chargers. Now can you bring one home to me?

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Except that you can't (permanently) divide spectators from an entertainment product. They are the ultimate source of demand for the supply of product that's generated, and at the end of the day, the Chargers (and the NFL) need that demand to exist.

The method of delivery can vary. We used to watch movies at the movie theater, now we have home theaters, but the demand for watching movies is the persisting factor that supports both business models.

The problem facing the Chargers right now is that they have killed off their demand. They may be able to obfuscate that for a bit by selling PSLs to people banking on that demand to develop. But what happens if it doesn't develop? What happens if they can't build a fan base?

Existential crisis. That's what.

Let's hope that happens, because as the article says, it's a fight for the soul of sports. It's a fight for the common fan. If they care not how many hometown fans actually attend a game or even if only 10K TOTAL show every week.....ie if the Philly crowd was perfectly acceptable from a monetary standpoint.....then what is the point of having a home town? If Spanos survives merely by sending out a team and having corporate sponsors and selling just enough PSL's and taking his share of the NFL revenue.....what's he got to lose? And if that is acceptable then what is the point of anyone caring about the NFL?

Folks USED to say SD was a horrible town for sportsfans.......it's NOTHING compared to what Spanos is putting up with now and with apparently little concern according to some (including NFL spindoctors and sportwriters like this guy). If it's true that Spanos and the NFL are not all that concerned, then it is proven that all that talk about SD fans not being worthy of having an NFL team was total garbage. SD was light years better than what Spanos is accepting now. So in other words his move to LA was completely and totally for the net worth increase. And in addition to that, he was gone no matter WHAT SD voted for or against.

As I stated way early on,,,,,,as soon as Dean and Fabiani saw the Clipper valuation they were gone. All that occured after that was merely window dressing to try to make it look like they tried and to attempt to keep as much of the SD fan base as possible. But in reality SD meant zip to them.

I get that moving back to San Diego is not an option as there is no real solution for the stadium. And the Murph is not really the long term solution (though it might have been nice if Dean had spiffed up the lockers and scoreboard - especially after the Padres left - they could have made those lockers and offices better).

But, nobody can convince me that the NFL, Roger, owners has not noticed and that people have probably talked about:
--was moving a mistake
--this is worse than we thought
--what if we moved back to San Diego - is that even an option

I believe those conversations, even if at the end of the day, drinking a beer - these things are being discussed league wide. Its embarrassing

The fact that the NFL has been going out of their way - repeatedly - and over the course of several days, to point out that they're not having conversations about the Flop In LA, says that they DEFINITELY have been talking about it. A lot.

By saying there have been no such conversations, what they're really saying is it hasn't been discussed at an owners' meeting yet, which is pure semantics, only because the owners haven't met this month.

But on their evil 32-team video-conference wall, you better believe they're talking about it.

Why would the high and mighty NFL admit that it made a mistake or worse.. try to correct it. At the end its all about the money - who cares about the fans?

If anything were to ever really come of this, the first thing that would happen would be for Dean to get the ultimate golden parachute. Someone would have to buy him out at almost full pop, with the NFL waiving whatever remaining payments he would have left on the relocation fee at the time. No matter what, Dean would walk away so much richer that he wouldn't give two sh*ts about the criticism.

And if the NFL went on to return to SD, the league would probably have to chip in funds toward a new stadium here, meaning they would return amidst a giant, sickening PR fluff campaign about how generous they're being, as the Great White Knights of Pro Football, riding into town on their big white horse to save football in this town.

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But on their evil 32-team video-conference wall, you better believe they're talking about it.

.

Damn you, now I'm trying to identify all the owners Fine print gives away some.....Khan is a no brainer Who is the guy 2nd row from the top 3rd from the left? Looks like the Devil Seriously he has 2 horns, right?

Damn you, now I'm trying to identify all the owners Fine print gives away some.....Khan is a no brainer Who is the guy 2nd row from the top 3rd from the left? Looks like the Devil Seriously he has 2 horns, right?

Except that you can't (permanently) divide spectators from an entertainment product. They are the ultimate source of demand for the supply of product that's generated, and at the end of the day, the Chargers (and the NFL) need that demand to exist.

The method of delivery can vary. We used to watch movies at the movie theater, now we have home theaters, but the demand for watching movies is the persisting factor that supports both business models.

The problem facing the Chargers right now is that they have killed off their demand. They may be able to obfuscate that for a bit by selling PSLs to people banking on that demand to develop. But what happens if it doesn't develop? What happens if they can't build a fan base?

Existential crisis. That's what.

I think it's appropriate that the Chargers in LA keeps getting referred to as being, 'an experiment.'

After all, this is without a doubt the riskiest relocation the NFL has ever attempted. Usually when a team moves to a new city, they're the only NFL team in town, a new stadium is in place or right around the corner, and there's a lot of enthusiasm for the team in their new city. The NFL KNEW going into this that 2 out of those 3 boxes weren't checked.

And then the only thing the Chargers did to hedge their bets was the most obvious, transparent, Spanos-exclusive-combination-of-greed-and-stupidity-thing they could do. They chose a temporary site with less than half as many seats as the Murph had, and more than doubled ticket prices to 'make up for it.'

They did nothing else to help themselves in LA. No re-branding. No major splash in the draft or free agency or coaching hires to get LA fans excited. That stupid f***ing Dodger logo. $100 parking spaces.

Of course, none of this would matter, except that they screwed up more than they thought....they tanked TV ratings.

The NFL sacrificed two top-30 media markets, reducing the NFL's TV ratings in SD and StL by about half....and still managed to see ratings drop in LA, too.

The networks aren't going to allow this. The TV contract is up after 2020. it should be interesting to see which comes first, the Chargers moving out of LA, or CBS and Fox actually dropping their rights fees for the first time EVER.

Beginning to wonder if the only way out of this clusterf#ck they have created is to move the team to London. They seem to show up regardless of how lousy the match-up/teams.

You know what, it's not that crazy.

London has a couple of things Dean Spanos doesn't have here in the US.

1-They have the novelty of the NFL being new and exciting.
2-That Tottenham Stadium is brand-new, better than NFL-quality..........and Dean could be a tenant there.

The buzz of an NFL team moving to the UK would create worldwide TV ratings, and Londoners would probably sell out that 80,000 seat stadium for 3 straight years before they realized which NFL franchise had actually been dumped on them.

Honestly, it works for me. Something about Dean Spanos being forced to move out the country makes me giddy.

Plus, it probably speeds up the process for the San Diego Jaguars to happen.

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All these things are written - its four weeks into a three year experiment or whatever it was. Thing is, it doesn't matter - Dean doesn't have the humility or business savvy to go back to San Diego

Let alone, there is no stadium to play in. Which is a major factor

But the NFL won't do a thing. They will just ride it out, knowing in three years the Taj Mahal of Inglewood is opening up followed by the dollar bills

Dean can take the public humiliation. Its easier than to admit he is wrong and mentally incapable of making the decisions one needs to make in his role.

Right. This thread is just for the joy of getting together and laughing as the Spanos fail move plays out as we knew it would.
Maybe some hold on to the hope that this some day leads to an NFL team moving to SD, but it's on the level of buying a powerball ticket and hoping for millions.

I've been reading a lot of the tweets on Mike Costa's Twitter page. One tweet really stuck out to me.

"Dean Spanos has repeatedly bemoaned how disloyal San Diego fans have been since move to LA".

Spanos must be mental. He's complaining about San Diegans being disloyal to the Chargers? **** Dean Spanos.

Costa's the type of guy that hears stuff and tweets out his muddled recollections as fact, I'd wait for a semi-reliable source before believing something like that.
Include who he "bemoaned" to, in what context - hopefully even his actual words. I believe Spanos is bemoaning stuff, his team in is the toilet, but it seems more likely Costa got some words wrong in that tweet.

Intended? Perhaps, but more precisely what I've always expected is they saw it as possible (even, likely) but didn't give a crap. Spanos got it to the point where blocking his move wasn't a viable option for the rest of the NFL, why not let it play out and see if the NFL having 1 joke team has any effect on their team? And more interestingly, see if the joke team still earns the owner money.

Spanos will likely come out of this mess financially ahead, but I imagine nowhere near those crazy valuations - they will adjust downward when massive sales in the new stadium are instead tiny.

The fact that the NFL has been going out of their way - repeatedly - and over the course of several days, to point out that they're not having conversations about the Flop In LA, says that they DEFINITELY have been talking about it. A lot.

By saying there have been no such conversations, what they're really saying is it hasn't been discussed at an owners' meeting yet, which is pure semantics, only because the owners haven't met this month.

If anything were to ever really come of this, the first thing that would happen would be for Dean to get the ultimate golden parachute. Someone would have to buy him out at almost full pop, with the NFL waiving whatever remaining payments he would have left on the relocation fee at the time. No matter what, Dean would walk away so much richer that he wouldn't give two sh*ts about the criticism.

And if the NFL went on to return to SD, the league would probably have to chip in funds toward a new stadium here, meaning they would return amidst a giant, sickening PR fluff campaign about how generous they're being, as the Great White Knights of Pro Football, riding into town on their big white horse to save football in this town.

Which is why a return to SD won't happen. Well, unless we win the lottery and a billionaire who loves SD buys the Chargers (or some other NFL team). When picking a city to move to, why would anybody else pick a city that's hostile to building a NFL stadium? Yes we know it's mostly because Spanos sucks, but that doesn't help us here.

Further, I really doubt the NFL will ever force one of their owners to sell because the team is really bad at selling tickets to fans. Although I could see the frustration of years of financial failure getting to Spanos some day, enough to call it a day as NFL owners.